Portland Public Schools is discriminating against special education students by loading them onto school buses five to 15 minutes before school ends and costing them hours of classroom time over the course of an academic year, according to a federal civil rights complaint now under review.
Full story »

Students whose disabilities can lead to tantrums and outbursts at school need more help from their schools, not less, the state education department says. Many schools limit students like that to shortened school days, a possible violation of the students' civil rights.
Full story »

Minoru Yasui, a Hood River attorney who battled wartime restrictions against Japanese-Americans, and Billy Frank., Jr., who fought for tribal fishing rights in Washington State will be posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Full story »

The owner of a shuttered North Portland bar is asking the Oregon Court of Appeals to reconsider its recent decision upholding a state ruling that found he discriminated against a group of transgender patrons. An attorney for bar owner Chris Penner on Wednesday filed a petition for reconsideration asking the appeals court to take a second look at the...
Full story »

In a lawsuit filed Monday in Multnomah County Circuit Court, Joseph J. Martinez claims the company discriminated against him on the basis of disability, age, national origin and race or color and retaliated against him after he complained about his treatment.
Full story »

Bar owner Chris Penner had challenged a Bureau of Labor and Industries finding that he had illegally discriminated against Rose City T-Club members when he asked them to not come back to his establishment because he didn't want it known as a "tranny bar" or "gay bar."
Full story »

Chris Penner had challenged a 2013 judgment by the Bureau of Labor and Industries resulting from his asking members of the Rose City T-Girls to not come back to the P Club because their presence was hurting the business.
Full story »

The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries has scheduled a May 19 hearing in Portland on charges that Hey Beautiful Enterprises and its president, Kimberly Schoene, illegally retaliated against an ex-worker who contacted the agency for information about filing a wage claim.
Full story »

Reader comments on two recent stories leaves no doubt that the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries' role in enforcing civil rights and wage-and-hour laws is perceived as either punitive toward businesses or as necessary to hold employers accountable for unlawful actions.
Full story »

Violence against blacks in the south was not new, but much of the rest of the country didn't really take notice until the Civil Rights movement began gathering headlines on almost a daily basis in the nation's newspapers.
Full story »

The Warner Pacific community is deeply saddened by the death of alumna Rev. Willie T. Barrow, a true civil rights pioneer. Barrow (nee Taplin) was born in Burton, Texas, one of six children. Her father was a rural pastor in the Church of God (Anderson, Ind.) and Willie decided to follow in his footsteps. At 16, she moved to Portland...
Full story »